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Company name and location: Continental Airlines, Houston, TX
Description of business: Transportation; Commercial Air Cargo
Credit executive contact info:
Pamela Demasi, Supervisor, Commercial Credit & Collections
713-324-1090
pdemas@coair.com
Size: Cargo accounts for over $700 million of Continental's sales
# of customers: not available
Customer base characteristics: Very diverse
Challenges
A staff of four credit analysts would pull data from a variety of data sources and then use a basic credit score/MS Excel spreadsheet for financial ratios and approval of accounts. This largely manual process was cumbersome and time-consuming, and even more problematic was the fact that the approval process was largely subjective and prone to vary from analyst to analyst. In addition, there were two distinct accounts receivable systems that required analysts to toggle back and forth.
Goals
Continental sought to implement automated credit scoring so that they could create a consistent scoring process which would in turn lead to a higher approval rate coupled with better decisions and improved financial metrics. Continental was looking to consolidate all the info from their two separate A/R systems and create a fully-automated, fully integrated environment for their analysts, where all customer information would be available no more than one click away. In addition, Continental was looking to incorporate more elements into their scoring process, such as additional elements from multiple data bureaus.
Type of scoring solution
Rules based incorporating data from multiple data bureaus as well as internal data such as aging balances.
Vendor and Product Chosen: eCredit Enterprise Edition
Costs: N.A.
BROI
The consistent credit scoring process has really been a great benefit for Continental. We have eliminated many of the judgmental factors that exist between multiple analysts and ensured that the same decision is issued across the board.
Results
Continental was able to consolidate two distinct accounts receivable systems; each feeds customer account and aging information into the eCredit solution. One centralized "paperless customer file" houses all customer information and eliminates the need to toggle from one system to another. Having all the information, including credit scores, related to one customer in the same place saves a lot of time.
The ability to pull information from multiple sources and automatically score accounts has reduced the time involved in both new application processing and periodic account reviews. Automated scoring has not only allowed Continental to issue credit decisions more quickly but it has also added a level of sophistication to their scoring process. Continental has been able to bring in new elements to their scorecard and more effectively incorporate aging data into the decisioning process.
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